Am I doing this right??

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I have 2 beautiful juvenile veileds and I was hoping that I could get some input on my setup. I have a girl named Diliyo, which is the Cherokee word for socks. She has just enough translucent in her to have little white grabby toes. I call her Dilly. My boy is named Little foot because I grew up in the 80's so I watched a lot of Land Before Time! I'm disabled so I spend so much time on these scale babies. Their cages are medium reptibreeze, they each have a reptisun 5.0 UVB and a daylight blue light, I keep the humidity at around 40 percent, they each have a dripper but I don't let it on all the time because it makes a mess, temps in their basking spot stays at 85-87 and the bottom of the cage average temp is 75. I'm not sure when I should upgrade their cages, I have been told a smaller enclosure is better until they are sub adult. Is that good advice or should I get them each an xl reptibreeze? I'll post pictures so you guys can see their sizes. I'm excited to get them in a bigger cage because that leaves 2 cages empty and panthers are so pretty... I think I might be addicted to these damn things. They poop every morning right after they wake up, huge poops with nice white urate.

Now for their diet! I have a HUGE dubia colony, a cricket colony, superworms that I'm trying to colonize, a mealworm colony, hornworms that I am trying to colonize, a well established waxworm colony. I've actually found that raising the bugs is a lot of fun! It's become a favorite hobby of sorts. Everything I feed the bugs is organic. I have a full spectrum light on a timer for the bug farm and a heater set at 85. I'm using my closet so it's easier to control the temperature. I've found a few tricks with the colonies, I use oranges for moisture because it keeps the smell down. I also have cleaner beetles and pill bugs in the dubia and cricket colonies so I've had absolutely no problem with any smell. About the only problem I have is cricket escapees. I feed the babies 3 types of bugs a day and I always try to mix it up so they don't get spoiled on one feeder, I generally try to keep it about 60 percent hard bodies and 40 soft bodied. So far they haven't shown any preference except they aren't terribly fond of the dubias, they'll eat them but they are usually the last thing they go for but they will chase you down for a hornworm! They get calcium without d3 3 times a week and reptivite once a week. I'm not sure why, but they seem to eat better on dusting day. I have a hibiscus for each of them but my girl is a voracious plant eater, she'd eat the poor thing bare if I would let her. My boy is a dirt eater, is there anything I can do to prevent that? The soil is organic so I don't think it'll hurt him but I don't think eating dirt is very good for him. The plants are actually in rehab right now because they dropped all their leaves for some reason. I also just planted some tomato plants for the hornworms after they pupate.

I have pictures of their enclosures and my bug farm. And my babies, of couse! I'm just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong, or if there's anything else I need to be doing for them.

 

[Decadancin]

Just be sure not to feed the hornworms if they are eating the tomato leaves. Many plants will go into shock without some plant bulbs. I use 6500k linear T5's for this and most somewhat hearty plants do very well. As for the larger enclosures, they look big enough to be upgraded at any time.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I don't plan to give the hornworms access to the tomato plants until they are in the moth stage. At that life stage they only eat nectar, the tomato plants just encourage them to lay eggs, and I am going to remove the eggs long before they hatch. So they never actually eat the tomato plants, they just stimulate the moths to lay eggs.

 

[Decadancin]

I don't plan to give the hornworms access to the tomato plants until they are in the moth stage. At that life stage they only eat nectar, the tomato plants just encourage them to lay eggs, and I am going to remove the eggs long before they hatch. So they never actually eat the tomato plants, they just stimulate the moths to lay eggs.

That's what I figured, but didn't want to assume .

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I actually just ordered some really cool LED grow lights for the plants but I don't know if it's just a gimmicks or if it'll actually work. Right now I have a full spectrum CFL grow light on them but I think it definitely needs an upgrade. Have you tried raising hornworms? It's just a project for fun, but any advice is soooo welcome! I don't want to get in over my head. But I have so many feeders, maybe I need a few more babies to feed

 

[Peachypink]

For the dirt eating you can get some river rock to cover the dirt.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

For the dirt eating you can get some river rock to cover the dirt.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I think it'll be a while before the plants recover enough to give them back to the babies, but I will definitely cover the soil with good sized rocks. I was nervous about him eating the rocks, but I found some that are fairly big. The hibiscus are supposed to be pretty hardy plants so I'm hoping they recover. I used to rescue iguanas and they would go nuts for hibiscus flowers!

 

[Decadancin]

Hibiscus don't generally do well in indoor enclosures. They make great plants for some outdoor time though. Some have a few that they rotate into the enclosure, but I find they do not flower as well when moved around.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

That's what I had planned to do, rotate them. I really don't know if these two will make it. They literally turned yellow and dropped all their leaves in one day. I'm in Maryland and it's already starting to cool off, don't they need higher temps? I'm afraid to put them outside because of it getting chilly here. I used to live in central florida, and they LOVE the climate there year round. I built an outdoor enclosure for my iggies and planted a whole row of bushes inside the enclosure and it was their favorite place on earth!